Author's Note: Officially over 400 reads! Thank you all for reading. It's nice to have people I don't even know (or some *cough* Cayden1937 *cough*) who enjoy reading my story.

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I couldn’t wait until they left after breakfast, and I dreaded them coming back in for dinner. Jimmy and Tommy glared at each other across the table for the entire meal. I stared down at my plate, taking the odd glance up to Jimmy to see his jaw clenched and his fingers tightening around the fork. Tommy’s nose was swollen and covered with bruises.

After dinner was done, Tommy stormed up stairs to his room. The door would slam shut and Jimmy would let out a deep breath. I began washing the dishes while Jimmy leaned up against the counter and watched me. Charles went upstairs to his room too and left Jimmy alone with me. The house was quiet until Jimmy’s voice broke the silence.

“Did you have a boyfriend?” he asked me.

I stopped half way through scrubbing a plate, my body completely froze. I remembered Jimmy beating Tommy last night, and I worried he would do that to me. He was furious at Tommy for touching me, but that must be because he’s his brother. If he asked if any other guys have touched me, he might punish me for being a slut. He knows I was a stripper so he must assume.

“No,” I said looking over towards him.

His lips curled into a smile and I went back to washing the dishes.

“It doesn’t matter if you did anyways,” he told me. “You’re where you belong now, right?”

“Right?” I agreed.

I pulled the stopper out of the drain and wiped my hands on the towel. I began to dry the dishes and Jimmy put them all away for me. Once we were finished he slid his hands around my waist from behind. He kissed my cheek as he pulled me in closer to him.

This morning he made me put on one of his sweaters, intentionally trying to cover up Tommy’s bite mark. He avoided looking at it last night and made me change into something that would cover it. He didn’t want to know that someone else had gotten that close to me.

“I have a new rule for you,” Jimmy told me, nuzzling his face down into my neck.

“Oh?” I gasped. I knew I wasn’t allowed to ask questions, but I didn’t know if that counted.

“You’re no longer allowed to be alone with Tommy,” he ordered me. I couldn’t stop my lips from curling up into a smile. Jimmy was really keeping me safe. What happened in the basement was never going to happen again. “Understand?”

“Yes,” I said spinning around in his arms.

He looked shocked by what I had just done and I got up onto my toes to kiss him. His arms tightened around my waist as I deepened the kiss. I ran my fingers up into Jimmy’s hair and he ran his hands down my back.

We were so distracted by each other that we didn’t hear the stones crunch as people walked up the driveway. The sound of the door bell ringing made my heart jump in my chest. Jimmy was shocked too as he quickly broke off the kiss. He let go of me and then brushed back his hair with his fingers as he looked out the window. He made his way over to the door and I followed close behind him.

When he opened the door, there was three people standing in the doorframe. It was two girls and a man who were roughly the same age as Jimmy and I. I was behind Jimmy, but I peered out so I could see them. Their faces looked shocked when Jimmy opened up the door. He was pretty tall and that scar across his face was intimidating.

“How can I help you?” Jimmy asked him.

“Our car broke down a couple miles away,” the man told us. He had a mop of blonde hair that hung down into his eyes. He had on a black jacket that made his pale skin pop. “There isn’t any cell service out here so we were wondering if we could use your phone.”

“That’s a shame,” Jimmy said. I could hear his awkward chuckle growing behind his voice. “I hate to say it, but we don’t have a phone.”

“What?” one of the girls asked in disbelief. She had her red curly hair tied back into a ponytail. Her face was plastered with freckles and I could see her teeth chatter as she crossed her arms over chest. “You don’t have a phone anywhere in your house?”

“Nope,” Jimmy told them. “Times are tough and we had to cut back.”

“Come on, everyone has at least one phone in their house,” the redhead said. “We’ll pay if you want.”

“Brittany,” the man said as he gave her a slight nudge in the shoulder. She rolled her hazel eyes at him. “If they don’t have a phone, they don’t have a phone.”

“Scott,” the other girl whined. She had her blonde hair braided back and had a pair of large black glasses on her face. She and the man, who I’m guessing is Scott, had the same pale eyes and button nose. I guessed that they were siblings. “There’s not another house for miles and it’s getting dark and cold out.”

“We may get cell service,” he said trying to reassure her.

“You won’t,” Jimmy told them. “I don’t know of anyone who gets service anywhere near here. If you haven’t noticed we are kinda in the middle of nowhere.”

They all let out a deep breath, which was clearly visible in the cold night air. The sun had quickly begun to set and it was dark outside. They all stood there shivering.

“Let’s just go back and sleep in the car,” Scott told them. The girls didn’t look happy as they rolled their eyes and moaned. “We’ll set out in the morning. It’ll be warmer and we’ll have daylight.”

“Do you want to come inside?” Jimmy offered. My fingers curled into his arm when I heard him. I didn’t think they would let three complete strangers into their house. That was the first thing I learned not to do. “We don’t have a phone, but we have a spare room if you would like. It’s warmer than your car and has to be a lot more comfy. We have food too and you can go into town in the morning.”

“You have cars,” Brittany pointed out. “Could you give us a ride into town?”

“It would be pointless. It’s Sunday night, all of the stores would be closed,” Jimmy told them.

“The people who live there must have phones,” she said.

“Listen,” Jimmy said. I could tell he was trying to control his voice. “I’m being nice enough to allow you to stay in our house for the night. But we’re not going to drive you into town this late at night so that you can go around knocking on strangers doors. You can take our offer or go walk back to your car.”

They all looked around at each other and shrugged their shoulders. Jimmy took a couple steps back so he could open the door wider. I shuffled back with him and the blonde girl was the first one to take a step forward into the house.

“Wait, Erica,” Brittany said.

Erica stopped, but she already had one foot inside the house. She looked over her shoulder at the others standing outside.

“What?” She asked wryly. “I don’t want to spend the night in the car. Anyways, isn’t this what our trip was supposed to be about? A little bit of adventure and stories to tell later?”

She continued walking into the house and Scott quickly followed her. Brittany stood in front of the door and continued to let her teeth chatter.

“Come on, Brit,” Scott said sternly. “Are you seriously going to wait out in the cold?”

She threw her arms off of herself and scowled as she marched into the house. Jimmy closed the door behind them and quickly locked the door without any of them noticing. He still didn’t trust me to try and not escape, even if the house was full of people.

The bile started to rise in my throat as I realized that they weren’t locking the door to keep me in. My mind raced back to my first night here. I thought about the girl they dragged into the house screaming, and the man they drag in who had his throat slit.

They were going to kill these people.